The 11th Edition of FTTH Council MENA Conference highlighted the importance of fiber optic infrastructure and its role at 5G deployment to homes, businesses, and institutions. In return, this will significantly contribute to fostering the economic environment, adopting emerging economies, and setting up successful regional plans for the 5G technologies. This year, the 11th Edition of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council MENA Conference was held in Cairo. The event witnessed the presence of 12 international companies operating at FTTH and ICT industries in MENA; they also participated in the exhibition that was held on the sidelines of the conference. The exhibition showcased the latest technologies such as FTTH/x, 5G, and Internet of Things (IOT). This is in addition to the participation of Corning as platinum sponsor and Sterlite as gold Sponsor, as well as more than 25 speakers and attendees from over 30 countries. The 11th Edition of Fibre to the Home (FTTH) Council MENA Conference was held in Cairo during the period from October 21st till October 22nd. Many influential people and international companies contributing at developing ICT infrastructure in the Middle East and all over the world participated in the 2-Day conference. President of FTTH Council MENA, Juan Colina, expressed his pleasure about the success of the 11th edition of the conference in Cairo and the level of the interactivity and attendee engagement during the sessions within the two-day event. "FTTH Council MENA has been focusing on encouraging the adoption of fiber as the preferred medium of choice across 5G technology, wireless and smart city applications.", said Juan adding that holding the conference this year in Cairo reflected the council's increasing interest towards transforming the Egyptian cities into smart ones. Besides, the council is keen on exchanging global experiences at the Fiber optics industry, revealing the new opportunities at such vital sector. The Council also shows interest at presenting business models and operational models to serve Egypt's recently-adopted targets towards digital transformation. At the closing session, Colina announced that the council's plan to held the next edition at the Saudi capital, Riyadh, in November 2020. During the opening panel discussion, Vodafone Egypt CEO, Alexandre Froment- Curtil, delivered a speech, highlighting the importance of engaging private sector and international institutions in the State's efforts towards enhancing the 5G technology. This is to be achieved through the major cooperation for developing fiber -optic infrastructure in order to be accessible to a vast-array of customers. Froment added that the 4G network users in Egypt represent only 25% of the total number of customers. Hence, Egypt has a slight chance towards adopting 5G technology nowadays, explaining that Vodafone Egypt is working annually on developing the 4G technology to ensure the widest internet coverage with faster speed across Egypt. From his side, Mohamed Shamroukh, Chief Financial Officer, Telecom Egypt noted that since 2015, his company has invested more than USD 3 billion to accelerate efforts to develop and improve the national infrastructure and network capacities, aiming to install optical fiber in 20 mn homes by 2020 On the other hand, Roland Montagne, Principal Analyst, Director Business Development at IDATE, stated that FTTH deployment ratio has reached 94.6% in the UAE, 83% in Qatar, 40.8% in Bahrain. He pointed out that governments are looking forward to apply FTTH technologies. He added that FTTH will ensure the wider internet coverage, especially as mobile internet services are more widely used, compared to the fixed internet services in MENA. For example, In comparison to fixed internet services, mobile internet services are widely used 11 times higher in Tunisia, 24 times higher in Jordan, 35 times higher in Kuwait. Regarding 4G service, Roland Montagne stated that number of 4G sim cards reached 190 million in 2018, expecting to reach 800 million by 2020. He added that 5G services have been launched in the Arab region, which is poised to be the first region to apply the 5G technology. He highlighted that the UAE started adopting 5G technologies in May 2018; this is in addition to other Gulf countries, such as KSA, Bahrain, and Qatar that already launched the 5G technologies.
Roland pointed out that Egypt will adopt 5G technologies by 2020, especially as a number of operators started 5G experimental trials in Egypt during hosting 2019 African Cup of Nations, and World Radio communication Conference (WRC). Therefore, Egypt will fully adopt 5G technologies within a few years.
